Family Get Together

Another trip to the North Island, this time to Winchester for a gathering of the clan to celebrate my Mother's birthday. Several of us arrived early so met at the Cathedral and had a cup of tea in the Refectory Cafe, before heading to the restaurant to meet everybody else. The restaurant in question was the delightful Chesil Rectory; this was a pre-reformation building that had had a number of uses over the centuries, but had been a restaurant for the past 85 years. We were given a large side room and served the most delicious food. I had carrot and cumin soup, followed by lamb (fell apart, yum!) with chickpeas and chorizo, followed by sticky toffee pudding - my brother in law was rapturous about this, and I wasn't far off. Scrumptious! The finale to the meal was a wonderful birthday cake created by my brother-in-law's daughter at Three Little Birds Bakery. Looked and tasted delicious!

After several hours, some of the party headed home, and the rest of us waddled to our cars and headed down to Dorset to the Hoburn Naish holiday park in New Milton. We spent the evening in a cabin, eating more delicious food and telling silly family stories until we all needed to retire.  The following morning began with a leisurely breakfast, and then a stroll along the beach towards Highcliff and back. Glorious views along the coast towards Muddiford, and towards Barton-on-Sea, and across the water to the Island and the Needles.

We all headed home early afternoon, and us Island people managed to get an earlier ferry back thankfully. Tired but happy.

London 2017

Much as I love our beautiful Island, I felt a desperate need to leave it behind for a few days, so the teenager and I packed our bags and headed to the big smoke. After a straightforward journey (despite misreading the red jet timetable) we arrived in Camberwell, ambled to my sister's house through big piles of London Plane leaves (of course we kicked through them!) and spent a pleasant evening eating lovely food and watching 'Keeping Mum' on DVD (recommended).

Next day the sister had to go to work, so the teenager and I bravely jumped on a bus on our own (not sure where we had to get off), and beaded for the Horniman Museum. It was somewhere we had wanted to visit for ages, and we imagined it would be less crowded than the Kensington museums. It was, but was still full of shrieking toddlers; we couldn't really work out why you would take a toddler to a museum as they don't stand still long enough to take anything in! Maybe we're just old farts. However, the main galleries of the museum were fascinating, and full of Victorian examples of taxidermy showing creatures from all around the world. There were also fossils and skeletons. The centrepiece was a huge walrus which had been stuffed by a taxidermist who had never seen one, and thus got rid of all the wrinkles and bumps! Spectacular nonetheless. A major curiosity was an example of a 'merman', brought home by a gullible sailor, and made up from wood, paper and fish scales. The stuff of nightmares! We didn't go to see any of the extra exhibitions as the card machine wasn't working and we had no cash. We bought baguettes at the café (tasty) and afterwards we mooched around the gardens, also full of screaming children. Pleasant though. Worth a visit.

On day 2 we hopped on the number 40 bus and hopped off again at London Bridge. We headed towards St Paul's Cathedral, and found Cafe 101 at the Salvation Army International HQ in Great Victoria Street, next to the Millennium Bridge. After a cheap and tasty lunch we crossed the Millennium Bridge, pausing to admire the views up and down the river and also to admire the teeny tiny pieces of art painted on the floor, on chewing gum. Sweet! We turned left at the end and mooched along the south bank of the Thames, passing the Globe Theatre and, later, the replica of the Golden Hinde, through Hay's Galleria, before coming to Tower Bridge, opposite the Tower of London. Here we decided to do the tourist thing properly and bought tickets for the 'Tower Bridge Experience' (student discount too!). We got in a lift to the top of the north tower, watched a short film about the construction of the bridge, then proceeded along the walkway and stood on the reinforced glass floor gazing at the traffic and river below. Thrilling! After completing both walkways we descended to street level, found the gift shop and then explored the Engineering exhibit (lots of engines). Once finished we bimbled back along the river to London Bridge and caught the bus home. Lovely, bimbly day!

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

Engine at Tower Bridge

Globe Theatre 

Wild Nights Out..... September

Shanklin Chine

We decided to end the summer holidays with an evening visit to Shanklin Chine; this meant that parts of the chine were illuminated with ever changing coloured lights and looked delightful. We had a lovely time pottering along the paths, and admiring the view over the English Channel with the lights of container ships glittering on the horizon. Definitely worth a visit if you are down that way.

Mark Steel's In Town, Ventnor Winter Gardens
I was allocated a couple of free tickets to this by the BBC and had a lovely, giggly evening with a friend, listening to Mark take the piss out of Ventnor and the Island #nitonnotnitten #microclimate

Isle of Wight Day
We got more involved than usual with this, although not by much! We started with a visit to the library to peruse the book sale and cake stall, and then headed to Newport to look around the Mosque which was having an information day. A team had come down from Regent's Park Mosque in London and set up some interesting displays about the history of Islam and its culture. There were some very helpful chaps on hand to answer any questions and explain a bit more, and I got free dates (fruit) and a bottle of water. Very pleasant and informative.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Took teenager to the flicks to watch the lovely Colin Firth and chums in action. Not as good as the first film, but still very enjoyable. Worth a watch.

Wild Nights (and days) Out...... August

Fireworks and Jet Planes

As it was the end of Cowes Week, we pottered down to Holy Trinity Church, laden with blankets, card games and coffee, and sat in the churchyard waiting for the evenings entertainment. This began at 7.30pm with an exciting display by the Red Arrows; I still get as excited as the average four year old by supersonic aerobatic display teams and squeaked with terror when the planes appeared to be getting too close to each other during fly pasts. I enjoyed myself and embarrassed the teenager, so all was good! At 9.30pm the annual fireworks display began, and there followed twenty minutes of exciting bangs and crashes and pretty lights in the sky. It always feels as though the whole Island turns out for this event, and the streets were certainly crowded with families, groups of sailors and wandering gangs of teenagers (who seemed oblivious to the fireworks). Lovely atmosphere as usual, and the church were doing a roaring trade in bacon or sausage sandwiches, tea, coffee and cake. Perfect evening!

Red Arrows heart

Chale Show
This annual, two day event is a much glorified village show; however, instead of the village hall there are several marquees full of local arts, crafts, food, bric-a-brac, poultry (fabulous! I'd like a black silkie please!), metal detectorists treasure, political parties, and, of course, entries for competitions such as best cake, vegetables, photography and amateur art,and children's competitions such as best Lego village, best handprint on a plate, and rice crispy cakes.  Outside are more stalls selling plants, cars, antiques, as well as charity fund raising. There are also many burger vans, a collection of vintage tractors and various ancient engines (interesting). Finally, there is an arena where you can watch falconry, horse back stunt riding, quad bike stunt riding, and the ever present Randini Magic Show.  There is also a stage with live music. To top it off, the venue is a field on the edge of the village rather close to the edge of the cliff, with stunning views along the west coast.

Fastnet Race
I didn't realise this was on and went for a quiet walk along the seafront, and ended up elbowing my way through the crowds in order to get anywhere! The Parade and esplanade at Cowes were thronged with spectators, and the cannon at the Royal Yacht Squadron blasted at regular intervals as the various starts took place. I watched the bigger yachts set off, which was very exciting, as the Solent was crowded with vessels getting in the way, which in turn were being buzzed by a helicopter and a drone, both filming I think. Nice start to the day.

Sailing
I was given the opportunity to spend the day on the 'Spirit of Scott Bader' catamaran with friends and spent a lovely day pootling about the Solent. We started from Yarmouth Harbour and sailed towards the Needles, passing through the narrows at Hurst Castle; this section was rather lumpy and we encountered a couple of squally showers. Consequently one of our number went a bit green. Not me! We headed along the coast past Hurst Castle, and eventually got to the Needles where we turned round. This section was much smoother, and we pottered around heading towards Newtown Creek before turning back to Yarmouth. Lovely day, and I got a couple of chances to steer the boat (without crashing) and also had a go at winching a rope (I think there was a more technical term for that!). I have less upper body strength than I thought. Excellent way to spend the day.

The Needles

New Forest Wildlife Park
A day trip to the North Island took us to the New Forest Wildlife Park not far west of Southampton. We spent the day admiring otters, lynx, exotic butterflies, wallabies, boar, bison, deer, owls, and wolves (awesome!). The kids had a great time playing in the various playgrounds too. Lovely day with the family.

Cowes Illuminated Carnival
Very similar to the daytime one in July, but everyone wore Christmas lights. It was a bit shorter too, but still entertaining.

Shalfleet to Bouldner

Having been cooped up for three days with a rotten cold, I felt an overwhelming desire to go for a stroll this afternoon. It turned out to be quite a long one.

I parked at the free car park in Mill Lane, Shalfleet, headed back to the main road, turned right at the pub and followed the road past Shalfleet Manor until I found the footpath on the right. The path led over a stile and around a wheat field, As I walked round the edge small brown birds kept exploding out of the crop and into the hedgerows tweeting madly. At the corner of the field was a wooden bridge across the creek, followed by a railway sleeper in the mud, and then the path led into a wood. I lost the path briefly (hadn't read the map properly, surprise) but found it and followed it until it met a wide farm track which led down to the end of Western Haven, an arm of Newtown Creek. Here was a stone bridge and I paused a while to watch fish swimming lazily below, canoers and a wild swimmer (bright orange) in the creek, and a couple of buzzards that were circling and calling above. Gorgeous.

The track continued for a long while, and I took the right hand fork when it split, and followed it down past Creek Farm and Lower Hamstead Farm. Here the path continued along a private lane to a small quay for small pleasure boats, with stunning views across the entrance to Newtown Creek, the Solent and the Hampshire coast beyond. I backtracked slightly and picked up the coastal path again, newly graveled at this point. It soon came out on the very edge of the creek so was muddy and slightly precarious in places. There were boardwalks every so often to get across the muddier parts, and I was able to pause and contemplate lots of crabs scuttling about in a shallow pool for a while. Lovely.

After this the path led along the edge of a field, through a copse and down some steps to a shingle beach, which I tramped along for a few minutes until the path became turfed. Just off the path was a small memorial in the form of a Celtic cross to three young men who had been lost at sea nearby. Unexpected and rather lovely. The path led uphill parallel to the beach, past some landslip and farmland before coming out at Hamstead Farm. At this point I was greeted on the track by some loud farm dogs - not overly friendly animals, but neither were they showing any intention of biting. They ran off eventually and I continued on my way. The oath continued until it got to a 'proper' lane, and then the coastal path turned right across a field so I followed it, and through a recently cut hay meadow, until I came across houses at Seaview Road. More noisy dogs here, but they were behind a wire fence so I ignored them.

Soon after the path continued into Bouldner Forest and continued along the cliffs past Bouldner battery, and down to the sea via a boardwalk through a reed bed. Nice. Just after this the path split; you could continue to Yarmouth or turn left and follow a lane to the main road and a bus stop! I was tired by now, having had little exercise this week, so turned left and found a bus stop at the top of the lane. After a twenty minute wait (it could have been an hour) the bus turned up, and transported me to Shalfleet, where I retrieved the car and went home!

Route: https://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_4602400.html 

Distance: 6.7 miles

Newtown

A lovely walk today, and not too taxing in the summer heat (remarkable considering the miserable weather of the last week). I met a friend in the main car park at Newtown and we ambled along the road past the old Town Hall, and shortly after turned onto a footpath leading along the creek. This crossed a couple of fields, then led through a wooded path and back onto the road.opposite the church. A little way beyond this was a path leading past an old house and down to the Mercia Seabrook bird hide, which we popped into briefly; it had a few people searching for birds on the wetlands and woods beyond, and we decided not to stay. Instead we walked across the field next to the hide and across the wooden footbridge to the remains of Newtown Quay, then out along a strip of land that jutted into the harbour. We stopped here for a bit, admiring the view and enjoying the peaceful atmosphere; there were few people around and we were surrounded by sea and countryside. Absolutely lovely.

We retraced our steps to the quayside then walked round the salt pans and across the field back to the road, and then onto another footpath behind the church, back to the road and along to the ancient house known as 'Noah's Ark'. This is, I think, the oldest building in Newtown and was at one time a pub, and has been many other things too. On the front is a plaque bearing the name 'Francheville', which was the medieval name for the, then, town and translates to Free Town. The plaque displays a picture of a boat and a lion, and is where the current name of the house comes from.

We went back down the road a little and picked up a footpath that led through fields and across the road to Walter's Copse. This is a lovely little copse, full of wild flowers and peace; we didn't walk all the way round it as intended, as we missed a side path. When we came out of the copse, we followed Town Lane back to the car park, and then went to the Town Hall and looked round inside (£4 a head). Upstairs were various pieces of antique furniture, clocks, Hogarth prints, a replica of the town seal and a magnificent fireplace. Downstairs, via a twisting, cast iron staircase, was a cool room with a history of the 'Ferguson Gang', a formidable group of ladies early last century, who bought various properties around the country, including Newtown Town Hall, and presented them to the National Trust. I suspect that I would have liked them immensely! There was also an ancient ring-dial telephone where you could dial up various oral histories of the area, and copies of ancient documents about the town.

Once finished, we followed the lane down to the 'main' road and headed for Shalfleet where we had tasty sandwiches at the New Inn before heading back to the car and then home.  It is amazing that this unassuming village with its wonderful wildlife and countryside was once the most important town on the Isle of Wight. 

Old Town Hall, Newtown

Route: (roughly) https://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_4596372.html

Route we meant to take: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/newtown-national-nature-reserve/trails/enjoy-the-estuary-newtown-walk 

Distance: 5.5 miles

Parkhurst Forest

I dragged the teenager out for some fresh air this afternoon, and headed for Hillis Gate Road and one of the entrances to Parkhurst Forest. We ambled through the trees, taking random turns along side paths and putting the world to rights. Some of the side paths were very muddy in places, due to all the recent rain, so we didn't stay very clean; however I enjoyed all the verdant greenery on the verges and in the woods, as well as the many fungi we saw along the way. The teenager wasn't particularly bothered by the 'nature'. Ah well.

We were accosted several times by a variety of bouncy, cheerful dogs and their apologetic owners but didn't see a great many other people. I have no idea of the route we took, other than we didn't get to the squirrel hide or the main car park!